Perception Of Visitors On The Impact Of Conservation And Tourism In Kinabalu Park, Sabah

• Main Author: Rais, Nadiatul Sarah Muhammad
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: S439 Agricultural geography
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/47939/1/NADIATUL%20SARAH%20MUHAMMAD%20RAIS%20-%20Perception%20of%20visitors%20on%20the%20impact%20of%20conservation%20and%20tourism%20in%20kinabalu%20park%2C%20sabah.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/47939/
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

Kinabalu Park is a protected area and one of the must go destinations when visiting Sabah due to the beautiful mountainous landscape, various types of ecosystem and the high endemic species of flora and fauna. As Kinabalu Park has already been opened to public for more than 50 years, the tourism activities are also getting busier since. Subsequently, tourism does gives impact to the environment of the park. Perception of visitors are considered a crucial aspect of the country image as each visitor may see the same level of conservation and tourism impact differently in Kinabalu Park. The visitors’ perceptions of the environmental condition and also visitors’ experiences visiting the park were studied. In order to collect the data, 400 questionnaires were distributed to the visitors at Kinabalu Park Headquarters. Based on 383 questionnaires that were returned, the majority of the respondents were male with 54.6%, the largest age group was 18 to 24 years old with 36.6%, most of the respondents were Malaysian (38.1%) but not from Sabah with 50.9% of them have completed their diplomas or degree level. The three major occupation group were students (27.9%), followed by respondents working in administration department (22.2%) and 12% of the respondents working in management department. The main purpose for the respondents visited Kinabalu Park was for sightseeing (38.6%) and more than half of the respondents said that they were satisfied (58%) with their visit. The rate of overall level of impact in Kinabalu Park was on “somewhat” level. Using ANOVA, there were significant differences on visitors’perceptions on environment conditions at Kinablau Park based on socio-demographic (age, origin and occupation) and travel variable (the purpose of visit).